Smart tech puts people in front

There is an understandable fear that adopting new technology is aimed at replacing staff.

The challenge of aligning employees with organisational strategies has become increasingly complicated, with pressures on speed, adaptability and flexibility while remaining creative and innovative to sustain a competitive edge.

With a deluge of solutions in areas including technology, change management and data available, businesses can become lost on what direction to take. An “obsession with the frontline”, combined with smart adoption of technology and a cloud-first mindset, is key to overcoming this challenge.

Gartner ranks technology in the top 10 reasons employees change roles. This could be because a business has become stagnant and isn’t implementing new strategies that keep up with market demands or because businesses are forcing the implementation of ineffective strategies.

This top-down mindset usually means a strategy imposed by the C-suite may leave most in the organisation feeling uninspired and questioning its purpose. Unhappy staff lead to unhappy customers.

As businesses seek to redefine themselves for a digital future, deployment of new technologies becomes paramount.

However, problems can occur when decisions on new technologies ignore the impact and value they are being asked to create. There is understandable fear that new technology is aimed at replacing frontline staff. Australia has seen its fair share of announcements from corporations that indicate this is often the goal.

But most businesses aren’t inclined this way. We work with org­anisations across Australia including ASX 100 companies from the financial services, telecoms, healthcare, utilities and education sectors. Often, the motivation is to enable greater flexibility, develop business-focused applications faster, increase efficiency and make better use of budget, all of which benefits the business and workforce.

Data is essential to discovering and implementing the right technologies. But rhetoric around data in business, big data and other hot topics has become convoluted in recent years. Many businesses are surrounded by data but know less and less what to do with it, creating an unhealthy dependency and inefficient management.

Harvesting data from frontline workers can deliver invaluable insights to drive the advancement of operations and more strategic business decisions. This data comes from customers’ first point of contact and narrows the distance between decision-makers, frontline staff and customers.

Until recently, trying to get clear visibility and intelligence from every aspect of the business has proved elusive. The increased adoption of hybrid cloud and enterprise cloud operating systems is removing this last silo of organisational dysfunction and paving the way for real time, comprehensive, and actionable intelligence.

So, how do businesses focus on frontline service?

First, it’s time for a fundamental reappraisal of what you want to achieve as a business, how your organisation needs to be structured to do that, and then what technologies you will require to achieve those goals.

Business leaders may question what role cloud and modern IT infrastructure technology, such as hyperconverged infrastructure, have to do with this, but getting the right infrastructure in place can make all the difference.

Design is a key driver of value. The modern workforce demands technology efficiency and productivity, which will only increase as the percentage of millennials in the workforce rises.

Cloud unlocks that efficiency and productivity. It can become a platform to develop innovative applications and digital services quickly for tech-hungry employees, making their roles more enjoyable and fulfilling.

This innovation can free staff from tedious and repetitive tasks. It doesn’t, and shouldn’t, come from the perspective of removing staff through automation, but empowering them to attain more value from their role and in turn drive more value for the business.

Jamie Humphrey is managing director, Australia and New Zealand for Nutanix.